


If you jump I'll jump too

by thatoldeblackmagic



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, aka: the middle school years, the origin story of ann & ryuji
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 04:17:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12999666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatoldeblackmagic/pseuds/thatoldeblackmagic
Summary: The first time Ryuji meets Ann, he finds her crying behind the school.or, if atlus won't give me more middle school ann & ryuji content I guess I'll have to do it myself





	If you jump I'll jump too

**Author's Note:**

> Atlus: ryuji and ann were friends in middle school
> 
> Me:..... go ON???

The first time Ryuji meets Ann, he finds her crying behind the school.

Track season is over and Ryuji is bored as all hell. The coaches are trying to encourage everyone to use their downtime to focus on their grades, but studying just makes Ryuji even more antsy than usual. He joined track because he’s always had too much energy and nowhere to put it, so why would he want to sit still and look at textbooks instead?

He can’t go home yet either because mom doesn’t get off work until 7 and their apartment is too quiet when she isn’t there, too many dark corners. He would hang out with some friends, but with track season over they seem to be in short supply. Besides, he’s heard the way some of the other boys talk about him when they think he isn’t listening. That he's 'too loud, too annoying, too dumb', just too damn much apparently. Mom always says that if they would stop running their mouths and start using their legs, maybe the track team could make regionals. 

So Ryuj ends up pacing around the school wondering if it’s worth spending his limited pocket money to go see a movie by himself, when he hears a faint noise. His boredom propels his feet forward before his brain can fully process that the noise is most definitely someone crying. The wet-sounding, sniffley type of crying which probably means something out of his element, but in the span of a few seconds he’s there. 

And there he sees a girl. She’s all but wedged into a corner with her back and left side smooshed up against the brick. Her head is pressed against her drawn-up knees and her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, and Ryuji notices that she’s still wearing her indoor shoes. She’s sporting blonde pigtails… sort of? Ryuji isn’t exactly an expert on middle school girl hairstyles, but it seems like one side has been pulled lower than the other which makes the style look lopsided. Maybe that’s how they do hair nowadays. Either way, this girl is crying pretty hard and Ryuji wouldn’t be able to face his mom if he just walked away.

He steps forward, crouches down in front of her and says as gently as he can manage, “You okay?”

The girl goes quiet. She’s just barely lifts her head up so Ryuji can see her bright, watery blue eyes and it hits him a little belatedly that this girl is the foreign transfer student everyone is talking about. She has to be with features like that. 

Her blue eyes narrow into slits and she shoots him a killer glare. “What the hell does it look like?”

What a way to make a first impression. She keeps eye contact with him and Ryuji has no effin clue what to do. Does she want him to answer? Is it one of those questions you’re supposed to just ignore because there is no right way to respond? Now that he can see part of her face, he can see her red-rimmed eyes and tear-stained cheeks. Ryuji has always been one to act rather than contemplate which is probably the deciding factor for what he does next.

Ryuji shifts out of his squat and plops himself next to the girl. 

He can feel her immediately tense up, so he says, “If you want me to go away just tell me, but sometimes when I cry I wish that somebody was with me. Even if they’re just sitting there ya’know? Crying sucks but crying by yourself is the worst.” 

She doesn’t say anything. Ryuji takes that as permission to stay, and tips his head back against the brick wall to stare at the shapes in the clouds. It’s not the worst way to pass time, and after a minute or so, the girl turns to fit her head back into the crook of her knees, but is no longer sobbing. It’s a bit weird for Ryuji to take on the role of ‘calming presence’, but apparently all he has to do is sit close-by and daydream about the dinner he’s going to eat later. Easy-peasy. 

He can hear the girl’s sniffling slow as the minutes slip by and Ryuji realizes that she has begun to match her breathing to his own. Her breathing starts to steady out after a bit, and somehow the situation has reached an almost peaceful sort of calm. 

Ryuji really starts to daydream, almost to the point of dozing off, when he's snapped out of his reverie by a voice next to him.

Shit. He must have been really out of it. "Uh, what was that?"

She lifts her head just barely and replies, “I said, what do you want?” 

Ryuji just stares. Is she going to specify? That’s about the broadest question you could ask someone but she isn’t making any attempt to clear up what she means. Ryuji decides, as he usually does, to take it at face value. He shrugs and says, “Right now I really want ramen, but that’s pretty normal.” 

This time, her head lifts fully off her knees as she turns to stare at Ryuji like he’s grown another head. So apparently that wasn’t the answer she wanted, but at least it got her to uncurl from the fetal position. Though now that Ryuji can see her face in full view, he notices three angry red scratches on her cheek.

“Holy shit, are you alright?” Without thinking, he reaches out a hand towards her face and proceeds to mentally kick himself as she violently flinches back. Damn it. Ryuji should know better that that. He used to have the same gut reaction anytime anyone on the track team tried to give him a high five. 

Slowly, Ryuji pulls back his hand and sits on it. “Sorry. It’s just… do you wanna go to the nurse’s office? I can walk with you! Ms. Kishimoto is really nice and if you ask her not to call home she won’t do it.”

The girl recovers enough to shake her head before hiding her face again. “I don’t want to go back inside yet,” She says a little muffled. 

In a strange moment of clarity, Ryuji is finally able to put the pieces together. She’s wearing indoor shoes and she doesn’t have her school bag. Messed up hair, scratched up face, crying in a corner. Shit. Is Ryuji going to have to punch someone? Mom told him to stop getting in fights, but he thinks she would understand in this case. At least this means Ryuji can actually do something to help instead of fumbling around with what to say. “What classroom are you in? I can run in and get your stuff for you.”

Her head snaps up and she fixes him with a probing stare. She’s clearly looking for something, maybe some sort of ulterior motive, but Ryuji has never been able to be anything but honest. And he honestly just wants to help. He’s been told it makes him too easy to read, but maybe that’s not a bad thing since the girl says, “2-B. My bag is sitting on the back left desk and it has a Doraemon keychain.” 

Ryuji nods and hops up to his feet. “Cool. You need anything else? I was gonna stop by the vending machine a get a soda for myself.” Not really, but he can make a pit stop on the way back if she wants something. 

She’s still staring at him. Quietly she replies, “I like milk tea.” 

He dusts off his pants and says, “Milk tea. Alright. I’ll be back soon!” And just like that, he’s off.

The halls are fairly empty so Ryuji half-runs the whole way there, trying to be as quick as he can and not leave the girl by herself for too long. He also makes a mental note to ask what her name is, so he doesn’t have to keep calling her “the girl” in his head. When he reaches her classroom, he skids to a stop and pulls open the door, not expecting anyone to be inside. Instead, what he sees is three girls huddled by the back left desk going through the contents of a bag. A bag that upon closer inspection has a Doraemon keychain attached to it.

All three girls have already acknowledged and then dismissed his presence, choosing instead to continue emptying out the bag rather than pay this stranger any mind. Though he certainly does get their attention when he storms over here and yanks the bag from out of their grubby little hands. 

One of the girls says, “Hey! What the hell?!” but Ryuji knows he can’t respond. This can’t turn into a yelling match, not yet at least. There are still teachers around, and it’s bad form to be seen fighting with some stupid girls over a bag that clearly isn’t his. He’s aware this situation makes him look suspicious as all hell, but as long as he can get all her stuff and get out before a teacher shows up, it’ll be fine. So that’s what he does. With a sweep of his arm, he dumps the knickknacks scattered across the desk back into the bag and takes off back down the hall, this time at a full sprint. 

He must look like a crazy person, tearing through the hallways with a still half open bag clutched in his arms. As he passes the lockers, Ryuji just barely has the presence of mind to realize that he can’t get her shoes since he never asked for her name. Damn it. Ryuji isn’t very good at this whole search and rescue thing. 

He finally makes it back outside, and skids to a halt in front of the girl who has finally uncurled her legs and is staring up at him. Her eyes aren’t as red, and she managed to fix her hair into normal pigtails when he was gone. It puts a grin on his face as he plops back down on the ground right in front of her and holds out her bag.

She takes it, but doesn’t look away from Ryuji. “Did you run here?” Her voice sounds much stronger when it’s not shaky from crying.

“Yup!” He replies. “Some nasty girls were going through your stuff and I didn’t want them ratting on me to a teacher. So, I ran before they could.”

Immediately, she takes stock of the contents of her bag and then sighs in relief. “You managed to get everything.” She smiles, and Ryuji feels his grin widen in return. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Some weird mix of happy, proud, and bashful settles into Ryuji’s stomach, and he can’t help the dopey expression he’s absolutely wearing. He rubs at the back of his neck and replies, “It was nothing really. Hell, I didn’t even manage to grab your shoes! Oh, right. I’m Sakamoto Ryuji by the way. What’s your name?” 

“Takamaki Ann.” She pauses, fiddling with the straps of her bag, “but you can call me Ann if you want. I still can’t get used to people calling me by my last name. It kind of weirds me out.” 

Ryuji laughs at that. “I get it. Formalities give me the heebie-jeebies. You can call me Ryuji!”

“Ok Ryuji,” she responds. She’s smiling so brightly that it reaches her eyes now, and it hits Ryuji like a sledgehammer that this girl is beautiful. Which is maybe a weird thing to think because her eyes are still kind of puffy, and the scratches on her cheeks are bright red against her skin. But, she’s smiling for real now and it’s so expressive and bright that it reminds Ryuji of his mom. Which is probably also a weird thing to think, but is a pretty big compliment as far as Ryuji is concerned. 

“Oh!” He snaps out of it as he realizes that he still has a task to do. “Lemme run in real quick and grab your shoes. Oh shit and your milk tea!” Ryuji runs his hand through his hair and sighs at his own forgetfulness. “Man, I’m all over the place today.”

“Um!” Ann interjects. She looks a bit unsure of herself, but continues, “Actually, there’s a tea house close to school. I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard some girls talk about it. If you want, we could go there instead! My treat since I made you run all over school.” 

“You didn’t make me do anything, but I won’t say no to free tea!” Ryuji stands up and dusts off his uniform again. “After I go get your shoes we can head over! Deal?”

Ann nods so hard that her pigtails bounce up and down which is maybe the cutest thing Ryuji has seen all week. “Deal!”

After a quick shoe retrieval mission, Ann slips on her outdoor shoes and reaches her hands out for Ryuji to grab. He braces himself, and effortlessly pulls her up where she does a little hop to right herself. Ryuji amends his previous thought because that was definitely the cutest thing he's seen all week, probably all month. There's probably some sort of freaky perma-grin that's etched onto Ryuji's face, but apparently Ann isn't put off by it. She brushes the dust off her skirt, slings her bag over her shoulder, and says "Ready?" with a megawatt smile that is so big it makes her eyes crinkle at the corners. Ryuji is suitably dazzled.

"Ready," Ryuji replies. She turns on her heel and starts walking toward the tea shop, talking about the tea she wants and the sweets she's getting how excited she is to be able to do this. Suddenly, she's bubbly and vivacious and Ryuji never wants to see her sad again.

With a short jog, Ryuji catches up and they banter about everything, anything. It's easy and fun. Ryuji has never met someone like this before, someone that he just clicks with.

He can't stop smiling, but then again neither can she.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! <3
> 
> i actually have ideas for another chapter or 2, but idk if they're too big for me to take on. i've never really written a long chaptered fic before. also it would get sad... they have to fall out of friendship before high school somehow 
> 
> BUT, if anyone wants more just bug me about it and i'm sure it'll happen. i really love these two and i cannot believe atlus did not deliver with their middle school friendship smh


End file.
